Pine Trees and Cherry Blossoms
by Catsy
Summary: What if Syaoran went back to Hong Kong, and Sakura remained in Japan? This fic, set in Sakura's senior year of high school, explores the consequences. Abandoned for well over 10 years now, probably won't be continued.
1. News from Abroad

Okay, I need to get a few things out of the way first. About what this fic is, and what it isn't. If you don't want to read this foreword, feel free to scroll down about five paragraphs to the _Title_ and skip past it.  
  
This is set in Sakura's senior year of high school, almost eight years after the beginning of the manga. Because of changes in the world that will become obvious in this first chapter, I'm calling this story AU (alternate universe), though really it's more like an extrapolation, a what-if for time not covered by canon.  
  
CCS is, for the most part, pretty light and fluffy. It's a /mahou shoujo/ (magical girl) romance, and it's a pretty good one. Like CCS canon, this fic is a romance, but it also treats the CCS characters and universe as if they were real-world and three-dimensional.   
  
That said, there are some things this fic is. This fic is a romance. This fic is (mostly) serious. This fic assumes a certain level of reader maturity, which is why I changed it to a PG-13 rating. This fic dips into the angst bucket at times, though it's usually better to call it introspection.  
  
Then there are certain things this fic is not. This fic is not light and fluffy. This fic is not Tomoyo/Sakura or Syaoran/Sakura, nor does it really focus on any of the usual "accepted" pairings.  
  
Now, with that out of the way, please enjoy, and do review this fic and let me know what you think! ^_^  
  
----  
  
_Pine Trees and Cherry Blossoms_  
Author: Catsy (nekojita@ayashi.net)  
  
----  
  
Chapter 1  
  
For the first time in a month, the weather was not unbearably hot and muggy, and that was cause for celebration. Or at least, that was what Sakura decided as she turned her room upside down looking for a particular shirt. Sakura was damned if she was going to waste the first nice Sunday in forever and a day, and besides...  
  
"Dad, have you seen my blue blouse?" she called loudly downstairs. "The summer one with the short sleeves that Tomoyo made?"  
  
"Mif min ma maundwy," Kero answered around a mouthful of almond crisps, pinpoint eyes focused on the video game where he was desperately trying to pull off a super move, and failing.  
  
Sakura hugged her arms around her and chewed at her lip. "Great. I /promised/ her I'd wear that out the first time we got decent weather. When did it get dirty?"  
  
"When you left that can of soda up here in the heat and it exploded," Kero reminded Sakura after disposing of the crisps. "She'll live. The sun no longer rises and sets by your alarm clock in her world, Sakura."  
  
Which was true enough, but still. "I suppose. What about this one?"  
  
Kero examined the proposed attire for about as long as it took him to shift his gaze there and back. "Gorgeous. She'll love it, just don't worry about--oh, you bitch! I was blocking! Blocking!" Or so Kero asserted to the deaf ear of Sakura's Dreamcast.  
  
Sakura snickered and pulled the shirt on, deciding that despite Kero's complete lack of fashion sense, it wasn't a bad choice. At least she'd neither die from the heat nor catch a chill from the nice breeze that was blowing outside.  
  
Running a comb through her hair, she stopped to examine the results in the mirror. She'd toyed with growing it out for a while after Syaoran had gone back to Hong Kong, but in her freshman year of high school it'd just become too much work to maintain, and she'd cut it short again. Now, two years later, she still felt pretty much the same way--Sakura Kinomoto was simply not meant to have long hair, and no, she had /no/ idea how Tomoyo managed to deal with hers being down to her ass. (She'd asked once, while she was in the phase of growing it out, and Tomoyo had assured her most enthusiastically that Sakura's was /chou subarashii desu yo/ and of course she'd help her take care of it. But that was another matter entirely.)  
  
Slipping a few pins into said hair to keep her bangs out of her face, she nodded at her reflection and raced downstairs, leaving Kero behind shouting, "Who's your daddy! Who's your daddy!" at Soul Calibur.  
  
"Morning Dad," Sakura called out as she bounded into the kitchen.  
  
Fujitaka looked up from his frying pan, and broke into a wide smile. "Morning, Sakura. Oh, that blue shirt? It's in the wash, remember?"  
  
"Thanks, Kero told me. Did Tomoyo call?"  
  
"Twice," Fujitaka replied, the smile giving way to a grin. "She said to tell you that if you weren't at the Toshiki Grill in a half hour, she'd--"  
  
Sakura almost snorted her glass of orange juice. "I have an imagination, thanks Dad. Did she say if Eriol'd make it?" Fujitaka shook his head.  
  
"No, but she--oh! That reminds me. There's something I forgot to give to you yesterday. This came in the mail for you." He handed Sakura a white envelope with the red and blue stripes of international airmail. Sakura glanced at the Hong Kong postmark and seized it instantly, transferring her toast to her mouth and tearing at the flap.  
  
She didn't know anyone else who lived in Hong Kong, so it was no surprise to see Syaoran Li's elegant Japanese handwriting gracing the pages of the letter. Truth be told, she'd been expecting one--Li usually wrote her about once every few months or so, letting her know what was going on in his life. It always brought a smile to her face, albeit sometimes a bitter one--Li was married now, a family arrangement, and making the best of a difficult situation.  
  
"How's Li doing?" her father inquired.  
  
"Pretty good," Sakura said, scanning the first few paragraphs of the letter. "His son's a month old now, so they tested him for magical potential, and the kid's reading nearly caused one of their mages to faint dead away."  
  
Fujitaka blinked. "That's good?"  
  
Sakura looked up and grinned at her father. "Well, I guess so. It means he could be really powerful, at least."  
  
Fujitaka shook his head, secure in the knowledge that he would never comprehend the workings of the Li Clan. "He was always such a nice boy. I can't believe he's got a wife and child, at his age."  
  
"He's eighteen," Sakura reproved. "The age of consent in Hong Kong is sixteen."  
  
Her father eyed her sharply. "He's the same age as you. Don't go getting any ideas." He chuckled to take the bite out of the words.  
  
Sakura cast her eyes to the ceiling. "As if there's anyone in Seijou High who'd go out with /me/! I'm practically the only girl in my class who doesn't have a boyfriend."  
  
Fujitaka leaned over and kissed Sakura on the forehead, then tousled her hair. "That's because you're picky, Princess. Which is not a bad thing. Now go on and finish your breakfast, or you'll be late to meet your friends."  
  
  
As it turned out, she was late anyway. Sakura rollerbladed into the Toshiki Grill at precisely 10:04 AM by the sign on the bank across the street (her watch said 10:01, thank you very much). Sure enough, Tomoyo had brought Eriol--as well as her girlfriend. Kumie Ishinohana was a pretty art major at Touya's college, which Sakura supposed was how the two of them had met--she'd never really asked, and Tomoyo had never volunteered the information.  
  
Sakura gave Tomoyo a sheepish look as she braked to a stop in front of their table. "Dad threw it in the wash," she said in answer to the unasked question.  
  
"Did I say anything?" Tomoyo asked sweetly. "I was just going to say the color suits you. Though the shade is a tad off for that skirt."  
  
"And thus the world ends," Eriol proclaimed, earning him a playful smack on the back of the head from Tomoyo.  
  
"Truly," Sakura agreed drily. "Hi Kumie. Didn't expect to see you, I figured you'd have a wicked load of homework."  
  
"Oh, I do," the girl replied, her face the very picture of angst. "It's dreadful, really, but could /you/ sit inside on a day like this?"  
  
Sakura grinned. "Not a chance."  
  
"Besides," Kumie added, nodding at the back of her chair meaningfully, "I brought it with me." Sakura palmed her face, while Tomoyo took advantage of the distraction to sneak a bite of Kumie's sundae.  
  
"Have you heard from Li recently?" Eriol inquired.  
  
Sakura's ears grew hot, and she laughed. "Since when do you read minds, Hiiragizawa?"  
  
"I don't need a Clow Card--yeowp!" Eriol cut off in midsentence as Tomoyo ground her heel into his toe. Eriol glanced briefly at Kumie, and covered with, "I don't need a Tarot Card reading to see the airmail envelope sticking out of your purse."  
  
Sakura looked down, started to stuff the envelope back down, and then thought better of it. "Oh yeah. Well, he's doing good. His son's a month old now, and has, uh... a real powerful presence in the family."  
  
Eriol's eyebrows shot up thoughtfully as he read between the lines. He smiled beatifically and replied, "Don't they always?"  
  
Sakura raised an eyebrow of her own.  
  
Eriol looked nonplussed. "I've heard so, at least."  
  
Kumie looked at Tomoyo, then at Sakura, and finally at Eriol. After repeating this lap with her gaze a few times, she sat back in her chair. "I feel like the only one at the party who's not getting the inside joke. This is that Chinese boy Sakura had a crush on in grade school, right?"  
  
/It was not just a crush,/ Sakura thought in a sudden flash of anger that was gone as soon as it arrived. "Yeah. Syaoran Li. He lives in Hong Kong with his wife and family now. We still keep in touch."  
  
Kumie rocked back, grinning impishly. "Wife and family? And he's how old?"  
  
"Same as me, just about," Sakura said with a tone that spoke of a belabored subject.  
  
"Busy little breeder."  
  
"Quite." Sakura didn't much like Kumie sometimes, but she made Tomoyo happy, so Sakura did her best to be nice. "Tomoyo, what's the plan? We still gonna hit the skate park?"  
  
"Why not?" Tomoyo answered with a smile. "It's positively /gorgeous/ out here, and Hiiragizawa was nice enough to offer to drive us around later."  
  
"Please," Eriol said pleasantly, "It's really no bother. I love going driving, and I thought we might head to the coast this afternoon."  
  
"The ocean?" Sakura asked in mock disbelief. "Too cool! I am /so/ there."  
  
Eriol readjusted his wire-rimmed glasses. "I thought as much. Shall we take the car to the park?"  
  
Tomoyo and Kumie were already undoing their shoes and buckling on their rollerblades, and Eriol answered his own question a moment later. "I'm guessing not. I suppose it's nice enough out, and it's not far."  
  
"Damn straight," Sakura agreed happily, bracing her arms against chairs on either side of her and rolling herself back and forth. "Get yours on, we'll race there."  
  
----  
  
Notes:   
As mentioned, this fic is set in Sakura's senior year of high school, as she's just turned 18. That would place it, by my reckoning, in 2004. (The CCS manga, in which she's 10-11, takes place in 1996-1997)  
  
You will notice that Sakura is no longer a bottomless fount of cheer in this fic. This is intentional, and there are reasons for it.  



	2. Serendipity

_Pine Trees and Cherry Blossoms_  
Author: Catsy (nekojita@ayashi.net)  
  
----  
  
Chapter 2  
  
Sakura won the race to the skate park, of course--these days, there weren't many people who could catch her on rollerblades. Only Eriol kept up with her, and Sakura figured she shouldn't be surprised one bit at that--was there anything he /couldn't/ do? Tomoyo and Kumie came in a close third, panting.  
  
"Next time I bring my racing inlines," Kumie said as she rolled to a stop. "You are /fast/, girl."  
  
Tomoyo beamed proudly. "Sakura's always been good at it, and she's only gotten better." Her eyes twinkled a bit as she adopted a scolding tone. "You oughtn't make us look so bad, Sakura."  
  
Sakura grinned, experimentally hopping onto the curb and testing it for grindability, then dropping back down. "Lose the cam," she said, pointing at Tomoyo's video camera, "or lose the race." Tomoyo looked scandalized.  
  
"And what if you manage to pull off that five-forty you've been practicing all year? And I missed it?"  
  
Sakura clasped her hands over her chest theatrically as if she were having a heart attack. Tomoyo made a great show of checking the battery level in the camcorder. "Well, it's true. Besides, it's the first time we've all gotten together in one place for some time, and I wanted to record the event."  
  
Kumie leaned over and whispered something in Tomoyo's ear. Whatever it was must've been good, because Tomoyo turned beet red and nearly doubled over laughing. Sakura decided she probably didn't want to know.   
  
"Well, whenever you guys are ready. Me, I'm heading in." And with that, Sakura hopped the curb and made a beeline for the concrete.  
  
These days, it was times like this that Sakura felt most alive. The Clow Cards had long since been converted to Sakura Cards, and while that responsibility would be hers for the rest of her life, she hadn't needed to use them in combat for years. Oh, they were fun to pull out every now and then--and The Light came in useful quite often, especially when there was a really bad storm and the power went out.  
  
But it just wasn't the same. The Judgement, the Tests, they had come and gone... and then there was nothing. She could almost fool herself into believing that she was a normal girl, that there was nothing special about her except for an aptitude for excelling at whatever she put her mind to. It was nice to be normal... but it was also rather dull.  
  
So she skated. She'd always done so, but after chasing the Cards and overcoming obstacles in mortal danger for three years, the sudden return to normalcy left a void in her life that needed to be filled. For a time, her love for Syaoran had filled it, but not even the Cards had been able to span the distance between them--and now that was gone too.  
  
So she skated.  
  
And, in the manner of all things Sakura, excelled at it.  
  
Sakura pumped her arms to gather speed, raced up the wall of one of the lame half-pipes they had in the Tomoeda public skate park, and planted her hand on the rim. She hung as long as she could, then raced back down, picking up even more speed. The thing that sucked about the pipes here was that you couldn't get any air worth talking about off them. /It'd be nice to pull off that 540 Tomoyo mentioned,/ Sakura thought, /but it ain't going to happen today, that's for sure./  
  
That said, she did manage to pull off a respectable 180 from the speed she'd gathered, spinning her body halfway around and landing reversed. Tomoyo and Kumie cheered, the former dutifully recording for posterity.  
  
"Come on," Sakura said, grinning and skating backwards. "That was nothing. Let me get my speed back up; on the next one I'll try and do a stalefi--"  
  
"Sakura, look out!" Tomoyo yelled suddenly.  
  
The warning was too late. Sakura felt her body collide with something solid. She flipped end over end, landing in a bruised heap. A heartbeat later, another bruised heap landed on top of her. Grateful for the pads she was wearing, Sakura tried to collect her wits.  
  
A skateboard rolled slowly by her head, riderless.  
  
Sakura groaned as her body began complaining about the impact, but in all fairness, the noises coming from whoever she'd bumped into weren't much more joyful. She shoved the lump off of her and rolled over, pushing herself up onto her knees. Shaking her head to clear the cobwebs, she looked up--and stared directly into the palm of a hand proferred in assistance.  
  
Following the hand back to its owner, Sakura allowed herself a moment to measure who she'd just bowled over. Bleached blonde hair peeked out from under his helmet, and a wispy goatee framed an imperfect face--not a bad one, but judging by the scar cutting into one eyebrow, this wasn't his first skating accident. The hair was tied back in a tight ponytail, and sweat was starting to show through the white tank top, which was tucked into a tattered pair of blue jeans. Sakura tried to guess at his age, but he could've been anywhere from sixteen to her brother's age.  
  
And he was grinning at her. And saying something, which dawned on Sakura a moment after she realized she was staring.  
  
"You /can/ stand up, can't you? You took a nasty spill."  
  
At that point, Eriol and Tomoyo arrived at Sakura's side, crouching down beside her. "Sakura!" Tomoyo cried. "Are you okay?"  
  
Eriol glanced at the scrapes on Sakura's arms and legs, and apparently wasn't worried by what he saw. "She should be. At least she was wearing protective gear--that could've been a bad crack on the head."  
  
Sakura blinked and looked from her friends to the stranger. His hand was still held out, a bemused look adorning his features. Sakura could've sworn she'd seen him somewhere before. She sheepishly reached out and took the hand, letting him help pull her to her feet. "No worries, guys. I'm all right. I just, uh..."  
  
"Ought to watch where you're going?" the stranger suggested.  
  
Sakura gave him a look, but relented. It didn't help that he was right. "Something like that. Listen, uh, I'm sorry about that..."  
  
The boy--or was it man? Sakura wondered--flipped her a salute and scooted his board back towards him with his heel, climbing on. "Don't worry about it. Just be careful, hear?"  
  
Sakura waited til he was out of earshot, and muttered, "'Boarders."  
  
"You /were/ being careless," Eriol said.  
  
"Don't remind me. I'm mad enough at myself as is for doing that."  
  
"Never seen him around here before," Eriol said thoughtfully.  
  
"And you come here how often?" Sakura teased. Eriol gave her very his best injured look.  
  
Tomoyo gazed at Sakura appraisingly, but held her thoughts in reserve. "I'm getting a little warm," she said. "I think I'm going to go across the street and get some ice cream. Would anyone else like some?"  
  
"Love some," Kumie piped up. "I'll go with."  
  
"I second that," Eriol said. Sakura considered it--ice cream sounded /awfully/ good.  
  
"You mind picking me up a cone?" Sakura asked, digging in her pocket for change. "I want to stay here and see if I can pull off that stalefish."  
  
"Of course," came Tomoyo's response. Sakura handed her a 500 yen bill, and went to try to outrace her own thoughts on the concrete.  
  
  
----  
  
Notes:   
In skating, a 540 and 180, et al, refer to the degrees of revolution that your body goes through in a spin trick. For example, a 180 is a half spin landing facing the opposite direction.  
  
A stalefish refers to reaching behind yourself and grabbing the opposite skate while you're in the air.  



	3. A Thousand Words

_Pine Trees and Cherry Blossoms_  
Author: Catsy (nekojita@ayashi.net)  
  
----  
  
Chapter 3  
  
Going driving, Sakura reflected, was its own reward. The ocean was wonderful, and she looked forward to getting some swimming time in, but there was something magnificent about the journey itself. The winding roads that led from the Tomoeda district down to the coast were stunningly scenic, and Eriol was an excellent driver. Sakura let her mind wander as patches of sunlight drifted down through the canopy of leaves, alternately leaving her in cool shade and filtered light every few seconds.  
  
The letter from Syaoran had bothered her more than she was willing to admit, she decided after no small amount of thought. Perhaps it was silly, to pine after someone when an unfathomable amount of ocean and even more damning gulf of culture separated the two of you--especially when you were still in grade school. But she was human, damnit, and humans could no more tell their feelings to go fuck themselves than a dog could stop wagging its tail when it was happy. No matter how silly or childish those feelings were.  
  
/I miss him,/ she admitted in the company of her own thoughts. /I'm not in love with him anymore, but it still hurts when I hear about his family, his life, and his child./ Sakura leaned back in the passenger seat of Eriol's Honda, and let the air whip her short-cropped hair about her face, as if even it were flogging her for the sins of her thoughts. Maybe it was just the gravity of what could have been that bothered her. /If I'd gone to Hong Kong with him, or if he'd been willing to stay in Japan, that might've been my child. I might not even be in school right now./  
  
/Would I have been happy with that?/ she wondered. /Would I be happy, giving up all of my dreams, everything I could do with my life, to raise a family with him? Or would it even have gone that way?/  
  
"Sakura. I know that look." Eriol's silken voice brought her back to the present, snapping her out of her what-ifs.  
  
"What look?"  
  
Eriol smiled, his eyes not leaving the road. "That look that means you've left this world and are currently orbiting at an altitude of--"  
  
Sakura punched Eriol in the shoulder without malice. "Daydreaming, Eriol. Just daydreaming." She gestured out the window of the Accord, indicating the scenery. "It's almost hypnotizing, watching it all go by."  
  
Nodding, Eriol reached over and turned the stereo down a few notches. "Beauty has a way of doing that to you. Stare at something striking for too long, and it ceases to have meaning of its own, and becomes almost a mirror... one that you can look into and see whatever you want." He did turn then, for a moment, and favored Sakura with one of those gentle smiles that melted hearts on sight at their school. "I find that fine scenery is good for introspection, myself. When I have something weighing on my mind."  
  
Sakura returned the smile. "You /do/ read minds," she accused.  
  
Eriol shook his head. "If only that were true, things would be so much less complicated." He lowered his voice, then, and added, "Technically, I'm the closest thing there is to a second father of yours, Sakura. And I'm not bad at putting two and two together."  
  
Sakura was grateful, at the moment, that the roar of the wind and the white noise of the car's movement over the pavement prevented any conversation between the front and back seats. She glanced in the rear view mirror, and could see Tomoyo and Kumie poring over the latter's homework. "Then you already know as much as I do," she said finally to Eriol. "And you know there's nothing really to be done for it."  
  
Eriol was silent for a few minutes. He guided the car around a number of hairpin curves, and at last the forest thinned. Sakura gazed out over the cliffside, taking in the glory of the sea. She felt an affinity to it--always had, really. She suspected it had something to do with her draw towards the moon--an after-effect of both her heritage, and the stars as the source of her magic.  
  
At last the road straightened out somewhat, and no longer required Eriol's full attention. He reached over and placed one hand on Sakura's shoulder, the other still trained on the wheel. "There are two types of things in this world, Sakura."  
  
"I'll bite," she said. "What are they?"  
  
"Those that you can change, and those that you cannot."  
  
Sakura chewed at her upper lip. "And you think I'm fussing over things I can't."  
  
"I know you are. Because if it were something you could change, I believe you would've already done so."  
  
Sakura chuckled, and reached up and squeezed Eriol's hand for a moment. "Anyone ever tell you that you can compliment someone and make them feel shitty at the same time?"  
  
Eriol smiled wanly. "I've been told. It is, as Ruby Moon says, a unique talent."  
  
Sakura laughed. "Something like that. But thanks."  
  
"Don't mention it. Tomoyo! Kumie!" Eriol raised his voice above the wind and called back. "We're almost there!"  
  
Kumie gave a thumbs-up, but didn't try to make herself heard over the wind. Sakura looked back, and caught Tomoyo's eye for just a moment--but it was long enough. If a picture was worth a thousand words, one look between friends was worth a novel--and Tomoyo's answering gaze told Sakura that they would talk about it later.  
  
Which they did, though later came sooner than Sakura was expecting. Everyone changed into their bathing suits and made their way out to the beach, wasting no time in diving into the frigid surf. The water felt wonderful, and Sakura warmed herself up by swimming out a ways and fighting the waves. She had just gotten back to standing depth when Tomoyo caught up with her.  
  
"Sakura."  
  
"Tomoyo, I--"  
  
"I know."  
  
And that was all that needed to be said for several minutes. Sakura's thoughts, the things that were gnawing at her and troubling her mind, were as clear as day to someone who'd known her as long as Tomoyo had. They swam side by side for a while, occasionally glancing towards the beach where Eriol was sprawled out on his towel, helping Kumie with her homework.  
  
"He's not coming back, Sakura."  
  
"I know that." Sakura floated on her back, letting the gentle swell of the ocean rock her into a state of bliss. "And even if he were, it wouldn't work. Too many years have gone by, and we're both different people now."  
  
"But it still hurts." It wasn't a question. Sakura knew, without looking, that Tomoyo was only a few feet away from her, dogpaddling to keep her position.  
  
"Of course it does. It hurts when he writes, telling me about the administration of the Li Clan, telling me about his son and how wonderful he is. And the worst thing is, it'd hurt even more if he /didn't/ write."  
  
Tomoyo didn't say anything for a time. They floated there together, the rise and fall of the sea keeping them company. Sakura opened her eyes, and stared up into the sky at a flock of seagulls wheeling overhead. Once she had flown in the sky, felt wings of pure magic sprout from her back and carry her aloft like that. In that moment, the terror of facing the beast sown from Clow's power had left her--and for a few too-short seconds, she had felt an ecstacy like no other. She yearned to fly again, to cry "release!" and let herself soar. And there just weren't many places on this earth where she could do so without risking being seen.  
  
"Kumie's really a nice person."  
  
Sakura broke her eyes away from the seagulls and looked at Tomoyo. "I never said she wasn't."  
  
Tomoyo nodded agreement. "You never would. But she gets on your nerves sometimes, I think."  
  
Sakura dipped her head under the water, came back up, and shook her bangs out of her face. "What am I supposed to say? It's not my business."  
  
"Sakura," Tomoyo said gently, "are you jealous of her?"  
  
Sakura inhaled water. Choking, she paddled back towards shore until she could keep her head above water. "God, don't do that to me. No, Tomoyo, I'm not jealous of her--we /tried/, really. It's just a personality clash."  
  
And that was all it really was--at least, from Sakura's point of view. When she was in her freshman year of high school, news of Syaoran's engagement had come, and she had been completely heartbroken. She'd dealt with it in the worst possible way: by rebounding onto someone else. Tomoyo had been there to comfort her, as Sakura knew she would be, and it seemed such a natural progression--it wasn't as if Tomoyo's feelings for her were any great secret.   
  
It had been several months of absolute bliss--and it was doomed from the start. Sakura had not been in the right emotional state to start a new relationship, and eventually she and Tomoyo had agreed that it was better to simply be friends. They had been so for so long, it wasn't worth the risk of damaging their friendship. Sakura had known that Tomoyo would eventually move on, and had encouraged her to do so.  
  
/Of course, there was no guarantee that she'd find someone I liked,/ Sakura thought wryly.  
  
"I can't ask you to like her, Sakura. I can't ask you to approve. All I can ask is that you believe me when I say that she's good for me." Tomoyo's violet eyes beseeched Sakura to heed her words. "I love both of you, and I want to be able to spend time with you. I don't want you to argue or be uncomfortable."  
  
"Hey! You two stay out there much longer, and you'll turn into a pair of prunes!" Kumie's voice called to them from the shore, and shattered the brooding atmosphere that had fallen over them.  
  
Sakura grinned, and covered by dunking Tomoyo underwater, very nearly knocking her friend's hair out of the tight bun that kept it neat. Spluttering, Tomoyo came back up gasping for air, and set about mercilessly splashing Sakura.  
  
"Let's get back to shore, Tomoyo, or else I'm not going to be the one you'll have to worry about being jealous. And don't worry--I'll try."  
  
Tomoyo took Sakura's hand for a moment, unseen and obscured under the sea. "That's all I can ask for. Now smile--it's a beautiful day."  
  
----  
  
Note:   
Sakura's attraction to the sea is directly related to her powers. She feels an affinity with moon magic, which (among other things) governs the tides and the seas.  
  
It should be noted, if you don't know, that Tomoeda-chou is a fictional place, somewhere near Tokyo Tower according to the series. You may therefore place it just about anywhere in the Kantou area that pleases you.  



	4. Serendipity II

_Pine Trees and Cherry Blossoms_  
Author: Catsy (nekojita@ayashi.net)  
  
----  
  
Chapter 4  
  
Sand, as Eriol was fond of saying, had been designed by the Universe's Greatest Sadist, Mother Nature. It had the most uncanny ability to manifest itself in places you didn't know you even had. Sakura adjusted the waistband of her bikini and brushed a few grains off her beachtowel, lest they lodge themselves again.  
  
"Now this is the life," she murmured, the afternoon sun warm on her back as she settled back down. "They ought to make every Sunday a government holiday so we can all go to the beach."  
  
Eriol might have said something in response, but it was muffled by his towel and his current inability to articulate speech. Tomoyo was sitting beside him working a handful of suntan oil into his back, and it seemed to have reduced Eriol to a state not unlike ice cream left out in the sun. If Kumie found this amusing, she didn't show it, absorbed as she was in sketching a profile of Tomoyo in charcoal.  
  
Sakura craned her neck to get a look at the picture. It wasn't bad. /What'll she call it, I wonder? 'Turning Hiiragizawa into a Puddle'? Too long. Something more succint and artsy, maybe, like 'Hands of Sunlight'./ Sakura knew all too well what those hands could do, and she pushed the thought out of her mind automatically before it even had time to register.  
  
Tomoyo and Kumie really were great for each other, Sakura knew. It occurred to her for the first time that the way Kumie liked to draw Tomoyo doing even the simplest and most everyday things was not unlike the obsession Tomoyo used to have--still did, really--with videotaping Sakura's adventures. Both were, in their own way, trying to capture in permanence a moment of their loved one's life. Once not long ago, Sakura had asked Tomoyo to show her some of the old videotapes she had of Sakura's battles with the Clow Cards. It had almost been enough to bring tears to her eyes, albeit happy ones at times. Had she really been so small, so naive and innocent once? "Hear me, O Cards crafted by Clow's power"--had it been her voice speaking those words and the others in the ancient chant?  
  
Tomoyo seemed to think so. She'd reached over and brushed a few tears aside, and told Sakura that she was just as wonderful and that she still loved her just as much now as then.  
  
/"Besides, memories are precious, Sakura, but they don't last forever, and they're not perfect. These recordings... they're perfect. They won't fade or become indistinct."/ That was what Tomoyo had said, and Sakura thought she understood now, looking at the way Kumie glanced up from her sketch every now and then with a smile Sakura could read like a book--or rather, a romance novel.  
  
Sakura let her head drop back to the towel, enjoying the blissful heat of the sun on her back. She had exactly four seconds in which to do so before her world shattered.  
  
"Sakura!" came Tomoyo's yell.  
  
"Hey you!" came a familiar voice.  
  
"Mmrr?" said Sakura dreamily as a volleyball smacked into the small of her back.  
  
More startled than anything else, Sakura rolled over and shot upright, just in time to catch the person who tripped over her. "Catch", of course, being a matter of perception; it was more like a controlled fall back to her beachtowel as the offending party tried valiantly to stay on his feet--and failed.  
  
There was a moment of silence as Sakura came face-to-face with the owner of the volleyball. The calm before the storm, as it were. Familiar bleached blonde hair spilled down over her cheeks, and Sakura found herself memorizing the scar line that intersected the boy's eyelid.  
  
Then the staring contest ended, and with it the state of mutual shock that had held them both immobile. Tomoyo's amused giggle shattered the uncomfortable silence, and Sakura felt her cheeks grow about as hot as the boy's own blush looked.  
  
"Excuse me."  
  
The boy blinked. "Huh."  
  
"Get the hell /off/ me."  
  
This was accomplished with alacrity, although the proximity of Sakura's knee to his swimming trunks was likely an incentive. Tomoyo tossed the volleyball to Sakura, who caught it in the crook of her arm and stared thoughtfully at her assailant, trying to look angrier than she really was.  
  
"I suppose," she said after a minute or so had passed, "that this makes us even."  
  
He sat up a little straighter, and brushed his bangs out of his eyes. "Guess so. Sorry, I just..."  
  
Sakura grinned. "Ought to have been looking where you were going?"  
  
The boy--Sakura was fairly certain he was around her age, now--grinned back at her. "Something like that."  
  
"Shou!"  
  
"Yo?" the boy called back to his friends, a few of whom had come to see why the game was delayed.  
  
"What's holdin you up? Let's go!"  
  
"Right." Shou turned back to Sakura and rubbed the back of his neck embarrasedly.  
  
"Your name's Shou?" Sakura asked.  
  
"Shouin, actually. But everyone calls me Shou. You're Sakura, right?" Shou looked almost hopeful, like a puppy waiting to be given a treat for rolling over.  
  
"Good guess," Sakura responded wryly.  
  
"Heard your friend before. Listen, uh..."  
  
At that point, Shou trailed off and looked over at Sakura's friends. Following his gaze, Sakura saw all three of them turn away and pretend not to notice that a boy had just tripped over Sakura and fallen on her, and that the two of them had /not/, in fact, been staring at each other and muttering small-talk.  
  
Shou gave one last look back to his own group, and relented. "Can I have the ball back?"  
  
Sakura blinked twice, having completely forgotten she was holding it. She looked at the volleyball as if it were some alien artifact that had suddenly materialized in her arms out of thin air, and thrust it at Shou. He took the proferred ball and dashed back towards his game, but stopped after a few steps.  
  
"Hey, maybe I'll see you around sometime, kay?"  
  
"Maybe," Sakura said distractedly, wondering to herself just how likely that was. "Later."  
  
When he was gone, Sakura turned back to the rest of her friends, and crossed her arms. "Oh, shut up."  
  
"Was I saying anything?" Eriol asked, the very picture of innocence. Napoleon himself could not have looked more innocent as he plotted to conquer Portugal.  
  
Sakura gave that the response it deserved. Tomoyo simply closed her eyes and beamed a beatific smile at Sakura, while Kumie thumped her chest, looking and sounding as if something were stuck in her throat.  
  
And that was how it went for the next hour, as the sun began lazily making its way towards the hills in the distance, setting over Osaka and leaving the air pleasantly cool--that state of "just right", much like the Little Bear's porridge, which the Japanese happily called "suzushii" when talking about the weather. Sakura would look up from her sunning, Eriol would pretend facile innocence, Tomoyo would smile knowingly, and Kumie would bury herself in her art. Sakura caught herself making bets on how long it'd take before Tomoyo took her aside.  
  
She lost her bet; Tomoyo held out until they were in the car and on their way home. Through some unseen force of common understanding that permeates friends from time to time, Kumie called shotgun and climbed in the front seat with Eriol, who engaged her in a conversation about Renaissance art that went over Sakura's head before the wind became too loud to hear it.  
  
"Out with it," Sakura said.  
  
"Out with what?" Tomoyo with equal parts sweetness and light.  
  
"You've been giving me /those/ looks again," Sakura replied cheerfully. "The same looks you used to give Syaoran and I seven years ago, except I didn't know what it meant then." She looked at Tomoyo meaningfully. "I do now."  
  
"He's cute," Tomoyo offered.  
  
"Since when do you appraise boys?" Sakura asked, grinning.  
  
"You're dodging."  
  
"And pretty well, too."  
  
Tomoyo changed tacks. "You're the one who bemoans the fact that no boy in school will look twice at you, Sakura. Which is, I might add, not at all true."  
  
Sakura toyed absently with the pristine ashtray on the door, flipping it in and out. Tomoyo waited her out patiently.  
  
"It's like this," Sakura tried to explain. "He's normal."  
  
"And?"  
  
"So," she said, lowering her voice a little, just in case, "the person you end up being with is supposed to be someone you can share everything with. Something you tell everything to. How can I date any normal high school guy, knowing that there's a whole part of my life that I can't share with him? That I have to keep secret from him?"  
  
"It's not like the Cards are really that much a part of your life anymore, Sakura." Tomoyo said, bringing her own voice down to where the wind would carry it no further than each others' ears. "I haven't told Kumie about them."  
  
Sakura shook her head. "That's different, though. It's my secret, and you're keeping it for me. Besides, sooner or later, she's going to have to know. And so will whoever I fall in love with. They may not be a part of my life, but they're a part of my past. My childhood."  
  
Tomoyo sighed, watching the sea recede in Eriol's rear-view mirror. Eriol looked up and caught her eye for a moment in it, and Tomoyo turned back to Sakura. "It sounds like you've brewed a recipe for your own unhappiness, Sakura. And I want to see you happy."  
  
Sakura felt a sudden heat rise to her cheeks, and she damped it down before she let it out too loudly. Taking a few deep breaths, she locked eyes with Tomoyo. "You want to know what'd make me happy? To give the Cards to someone else and never have to worry about them again. To not have them sitting there in my drawer, a responsibility that I can never be rid of. You don't know what I'd give sometimes, Tomoyo, just to be /normal/."  
  
Sakura felt wetness on her cheeks, but she knew she wasn't crying. And then she felt another drop, and another, and it wasn't long before those few became Legion. Eriol pulled the car over and worked quickly to get the top put back up. Sakura sat in the back with Tomoyo, feeling vaguely useless as Kumie helped Eriol with the convertible top.  
  
"Damn summer storms," Kumie commented as she got back in the car. "At least it waited until the sun was setting and we'd left the beach."  
  
Sakura sat in somber silence, and distantly heard Tomoyo murmur something in agreement. Eriol slid back into the driver's seat, and paused long enough to give Sakura a strange look.  
  
/Do you really read minds, Hiiragizawa, or are you just more perceptive than anyone gives you credit for?/  
  
Sakura had the entire drive home to think about it.  
  



	5. Midnight Vigil

_Pine Trees and Cherry Blossoms_  
Author: Catsy (nekojita@ayashi.net)  
  
----  
  
Chapter 5  
  
"Normal," Kero echoed, downing /nigiri/ one after the other as if they were candy. Which, for all intents and purposes, they probably were to him.  
  
"Normal," Sakura confirmed. "Nonmagical. No responsibility to safeguard the most dangerous magical artifacts in the world, and whatnot." She lay sprawled on her belly across the floor of her bedroom, idly kicking her feet in the air in time to whatever song happened to cycle through her CD changer. The music served to drown out the rain, which drummed its own beat to its own time on her windowsill.  
  
It hadn't stopped raining since she'd come back from the beach, and that had been hours ago--she really ought to have been getting ready for bed, but Kero had sensed matters weighing on her mind, and pressed her. As Sakura braced herself for the lecture, Kero wiped his face off with the back of one single plush paw, and fixed his pinprick eyes on her. "Well fuck you very much, Sakura Kinomoto," her companion declared in his incongruously rough Osaka accent. "I suppose you'll be wanting Yue and I to take a hike while you're at it?"  
  
"That's not what I meant," Sakura said, resting her chin on her hands before Kero. "I love both of you; I wouldn't give you up for anything."  
  
"Well, that's what you said. Get rid of the Cards, you get rid of us. You can't have one without the other, Sakura."  
  
Sakura reached over and nicked a piece of sushi off Kero's plate, causing him to bat ineffectively at her hand. She hadn't really thought the whole thing through, she realized, and Cerberus was right--he and Yue were inextricably linked to Clow's power; to her power. Wishing the Cards away without losing Kero and Yue, both very dear to her, would be like trying to wish away her period (not that /that/ notion hadn't occurred to her either, mind you).  
  
"It's like this," Kero said, swallowing a mouthful of eel whole and interpreting her silence more or less correctly. "Nobody who deserves real power ever really asks for it. It just kinda happens. Clow, he didn't ask to be born a magician. You either got it or ya don't, and he had it. So he figures, hey, if I got this thing, I might as well make the best of it, an' he did."  
  
"Clow," Sakura pointed out, "lived in a time and place where he could get away with 'making the most of it'. Eriol might think it's hysterical to work minor magic at school when nobody's looking, but I'm not going to get a 10 in Botany by using the Flower Card."  
  
Kero regarded Sakura askance, as if daring her to try it.  
  
"And I'm sure not going to have any kind of a normal life or relationship by 'making the most of it'."  
  
If there were anything more amusing than seeing a six-inch plush doll cross his arms and furrow his brow, it wasn't coming to Sakura's mind. Kero chewed, swallowed, and sighed. "That's just it. You got this thing in your head like you think you need to be 'normal', whatever that is. Like you got a choice. You ain't, and you don't. You're you, and that's a girl--"  
  
"Woman. I'm eighteen."  
  
Kero ignored this. "--a girl named Sakura Kinomoto who has the potential to be one of the most powerful mages ever, when and if she decides to stop feeling sorry for herself 'cause she's meant to rub elbows with sorcerin' types rather than going to prom and getting drunk."  
  
The music went silent for a few moments as Sakura's stereo cycled to a new CD. In the pause, Cerberus gave her a look she knew very well. It was difficult to be genuinely pissed off at a stuffed animal, even when you knew that his true form was a tremendous winged lion. Even when he was being decidedly matronly.  
  
"Am I right or am I right?" Kero demanded smugly, holding a piece of sushi up and belaying his gratification just long enough to get an answer.  
  
Sakura stuck her lower lip out to blow her bangs out of her face. "Someday," she said, "you and I are going to have a talk about where all of these eighteen-year-old mage boys hang out and why I'm not going to school /there/."  
  
Kero snickered. "Hong Kong. Where else?" Sakura threw a pillow at him and laughed, but it sounded forced even to her own ears.  
  
  
  
Eriol sat atop the roof of the house across from the Kinomoto residence, watching. The light in Sakura's room had long since gone out, and at any rate he couldn't see much of anything through the heavy rain, but he watched nevertheless. The patterns were shifting, and if he closed his eyes, he could more clearly see the ebb and flow of her power as she passed gradually into sleep, saw it like a nightlight woven of rainbows in her room. It was reassuring, at least, to know that her dreams offered her a respite from her worries.  
  
The noise behind him was feather-light, and indistinct beneath the white noise of the raindrops on the rooftop, but Eriol felt the presence long before he heard it. "You think I'm worrying over nothing, don't you?" he inquired of the rain.  
  
Nakuru, in her magical form as Ruby Moon, shook out her gossamer wings in a futile gesture that was more symbolic than anything else. "It is presently just past eleven at night, and you are perched on a rooftop in pouring rain watching the house of your dear descendant-in-law and angsting over what you see in her aura." The declaration was laced with Ruby Moon's usual sardonic wit, of a caliber she reserved for those times when Eriol or someone else were being particularly obstinate. "You tell me."  
  
"I think," Eriol said without turning, "that you came to tell me to stop being silly about this. And you're probably right."  
  
"But?"  
  
"But," Eriol agreed. "I wasn't lying to her, you know. I don't have even a fraction of the power that Clow did, either as a mage or a seer. But I trust my instincts."  
  
"What most people call instincts are really just low-level magic anyway. So what're they telling you?"  
  
"That something's wrong with Sakura."  
  
Ruby Moon stared thoughtfully at the Kinomoto residence, as if she might see something that Eriol missed. "With Sakura, or with her power?"  
  
"The question has no meaning. Sakura /is/ her power. The two were inseparate before she was even born." Eriol shivered briefly. At one time, he could've conjured up a simple spell to shield himself from the chill and the wetness. He wondered, sometimes, about the arbitrariness of which abilities he retained and which he lost. "Did you come out here just to ask me that?"  
  
Eriol felt something warm and blissfully dry settle about his shoulders. Reaching up and feeling the embroidered hem, he smiled nostalgically. His cloak--the cloak that he wore during the time that he was testing Sakura, a cloak very much like Clow's. It was a little small for him now, and he was willing to bet that it wouldn't even come down to his knees if he stood up.  
  
"I haven't worn this in years," he mused, turning and looking at Ruby Moon over his shoulder. "Don't you think it's a trifle melodramatic?"  
  
"Melodramatic," she remarked casually, pink eyes glittering in the moonlight, "is sitting on a rooftop in the rain watching someone's aura while they go to sleep. I brought it to you because I figured you were cold."  
  
And he /was/ cold, too. Very. Eriol drew the cloak more tightly around him. It was too small by several inches to clasp in the front around his neck, but plenty long enough to cover his sitting form. The material was enchanted and kept him, at least, from getting any wetter than he already was.  
  
The night grew deeper, both in hours and in the personal silence of the two rooftop observers. As Eriol watched the house where Sakura peacefully slept, the rain gradually waned and died off to a misty drizzle. Eventually the only sounds in the neighborhood were the placid drip-drip of roof gutters and the occasional offended bark of a watchdog.  
  
Knowing Sakura, everything would turn out just fine. Sakura used to say that or variations on it all the time, and until the heartbreak of losing the Li kid, those words had been like her own personal protection charm. Somewhere along the line, Eriol decided, she'd lost her ability to believe in that. Sakura had never really experienced that sort of disappointment, that disillusionment before. It was, he supposed, a part of growing up.  
  
"In the real world, not everything really does turn out just fine," he said quietly.  
  
Ruby Moon stirred beside him, lifting her head from her master's shoulder. "What brought that on?"  
  
"Just thinking. Sakura used to always say 'everything will be all right', or 'everything will turn out okay'. It was her magic phrase. It was a wonderful thing to believe in, and it's our beliefs, our wills, that give true magic its strongest effect. But the real world doesn't work that way, and sooner or later she had to learn that. Things don't always go the way we want, and sometimes they go wrong. Terribly wrong."  
  
He felt an elbow in his ribs. "You're morbid tonight," Ruby Moon commented.  
  
That drew a soft chuckle from Eriol. "Not morbid. Just thoughtful. Trying to make sense of who and what Sakura's becoming." His eyes drifted closed for just a moment, but it was long enough. Ruby Moon stood up slowly, testing her balance on the slick shingles.  
  
"I'm going home. If you have any sense at all, you'll do the same before you nod off and fall right off the roof."  
  
"No, I'm coming." He withdrew his Key from his pocket, felt it grow warm as he coaxed power from it, preparing to float down to the sidewalk. Ruby Moon winked once, and was gone. When Eriol finally felt his feet touch the ground again, he hesitated before the house he'd been watching for the past few hours.  
  
"Sweet dreams, Sakura," he said softly, before getting on his bicycle and heading home.  
  
----  
  
Notes:   
/Nigiri/ is a style of sushi with a slice of topping (like raw fish) placed atop formed rice. It's what most people usually think of when they think of sushi, although there are many different varieties.  
  
In Japan, subjects are graded differently than in America; rather than being A-F, with A the best grade, grades are numeric, with 10 the best grade possible.  
  
Eriol, like many mages, sees auras and reflections of power much as a normal person might see colors or distinguish scents. Because they're a mostly visual representation, he sees them more clearly with his eyes closed, without the interference of the visible light our eyes see.  



	6. The Garden

_Pine Trees and Cherry Blossoms_  
Author: Catsy (nekojita@ayashi.net)  
  
----  
  
Chapter 6  
  
Lulled to sleep by the sound of raindrops, Sakura dreamt.  
  
Once upon a time, Sakura's dreams had not been her own. It had been a very long time ago, and she could still remember the first time Clow Reed had come to her in dreams. In these dreams, they sometimes strode through a garden together, the scent of violets and roses and cherry blossoms and a thousand other plants taking turns. The garden was always beautiful, and they did not always have anything to say to each other.  
  
And then her Judgement and her Test were over, the Clow Cards had become Sakura Cards, and Clow no longer came to her. It was as if the last lingering traces of his spirit, which had had unfinished business, felt no more need to remain.  
  
Sakura dreamt, and once again she stood in the garden. It seemed a timeless place; Sakura could've sworn that the cherry blossoms for which she was named never ceased to fall, never passed out of season. Clow sat crosslegged before a patchwork quilt spread out on the grass, a bread roll and teacup on a plate in front of him. He was smiling; Sakura could not, at the moment, remember a time when he was not.  
  
"Are you thirsty?" he asked, gesturing towards a second teacup that Sakura had not noticed before.  
  
Sakura shook her head. "I'm dreaming. I don't think I could be thirsty."  
  
Clow inclined his head. "You're dreaming; you may be whatever you imagine yourself to be. At least, I've always found it to be so."  
  
Sakura found herself answering his smile. It was difficult not to. "In that case, I think I will imagine myself not thirsty, but happy to share a cup of tea with you."  
  
The ancient mage gestured, and there was tea in Sakura's cup. "Your imagination warms me as the afternoon sun. Let us talk, Sakura. It has been a long time."  
  
Sakura settled herself automatically into /seiza/, her legs tucked neatly under her. She tasted the tea, and was not at all surprised that it was good. "No kidding. What should we talk about?"  
  
"What indeed." Clow sipped delicately at his tea, seeming to barely even taste it, as if it was more a gesture than a drink. "You are troubled."  
  
"And you, sir, are a mindreader."  
  
Clow allowed himself the briefest of chuckles. "Everyone always thought so. I've sometimes found it useful not to disabuse them of the notion."  
  
Sakura chewed on that non-answer. "What do you do?" she finally asked.  
  
"I'm afraid I don't follow."  
  
A fleeting smile passed Sakura's lips. "Okay, so you're not a mindreader. Let me rephrase that. You were alive for a long time."  
  
"Long enough."  
  
"So what did you do with all the time? What do mages do when they graduate high school and want to get on with their life, get a job, have a family, and all that?"  
  
The Great Clow Reed appeared to have momentary difficulty breathing his tea. Coughing, he waved his hand before him. "No, no, I'm not laughing at you, your question merely caught me off-guard. I wish I had answers for you, Sakura. You see, I never led the sort of dual life that you find yourself in now. I never went to a school for regular children, never 'graduated', as you put it, or anything of the sort. What I am, I have always known and always been."  
  
Sakura's emotions must have shown on her face, because Clow reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Let us walk."  
  
They did so, taking the same path as they always had before, and in silence. Eventually, they stopped before a great tree, and Clow turned to look at Sakura with pride in his eyes.  
  
"My life was devoted to magic, Sakura. From the moment I was born, I had power. It was in my very essence, passed down to me by both parents in something that goes far deeper than what you now understand as 'genetics'. Just as it was with you." Clow's face then fell; he seemed far more ancient than imaginable, as if the weight of time's passage was still sinking in. "You live, unfortunately, in a day and age where it is increasingly more difficult to conceal magery. I am no longer of this world; much of what I know of present day, I know through you. The only mages that I know still to thrive, organized, are my descendants--the Li Clan."  
  
Sakura's expression darkened. "The Li Clan."  
  
Clow gave her a pointed look. "That avenue is not wholly closed to you."  
  
"The Li Clan," Sakura said tightly, "wants nothing more to do with me. The Clow Cards are Clow Cards no longer, and they have their heir."  
  
Clow's eyes turned compassionately on her. "If you say so. But they are a resource. You would do well not to burn your bridges."  
  
"My bridges were burned long ago, Clow."  
  
"Again, if you say so."  
  
Sakura stared at him. "I do," she answered, not sounding wholly convinced herself.  
  
"Well then. You asked what I did with my time." Sakura nodded, and Clow turned, walking towards the tree at which they'd stopped. "Many of my days were spent much as you see me now. I have found," he said as he settled himself within the roots, "that many of your troubles are eased by occasionally stepping outside of your routine, and resting within the shade of a pine tree."  
  
Sakura continued staring at Clow, though her gaze had a thoughtful quality to it now. "You," she said finally, "are a very peculiar man."  
  
"Were."  
  
"Were," Sakura agreed.  
  
Clow lifted an eyebrow. "Indeed." The eyebrow stayed suspended there for a moment, and then both of his eyes slid closed. "I've often had that very thought myself."  
  
Sakura nodded. "Thank you," she said, and awoke.  
  
  
  
Opening her eyes, Sakura was not surprised when the early morning sun spilled through her window, providing a pleasant sort of heat on her legs; somehow the dreams of Clow always managed to carry her through the entire night, no matter how short or long they were. She rolled over onto her side and fumbled groggily for the alarm clock, managing to tip it towards her after a few tries.  
  
Sakura still had a few minutes before she needed to get up, and she took advantage of it, shutting off the alarm clock. She rolled back and laced her fingers behind her head, and tried to focus her thoughts and remember everything she and Clow discussed.   
  
Clow, she decided, had been as helpful as always. Which is to say not at all; Sakura was convinced that part of the mage training that she never received was the part where they taught you how to conduct an entire conversation without saying anything at all of substance.  
  
"Well, ain't /someone/ up early. So what did Clow have to say?"  
  
Sakura lifted her head from the pillow and stared down at Kero, whose voice had just wafted out of her dresser drawer. "What makes you think I had a Clow dream?"  
  
Kero snorted. "Because it's the only time you /ever/ wake up before your alarm goes off. Assuming it does at all."  
  
"That's not /always/ true. Sometimes the dreams themselves have made me wake up late."  
  
"And she dodges well, but not well enough." Kero floated up out of the drawer and gave Sakura a knowing look. "I read it in the Daily Yomiyuri, what do you think? Now spill."  
  
"This must be what it's like to have a mother," Sakura said, sinking below the covers and pulling them over her head.  
  
Kero waited. Eventually, a few inches of messy brown hair and bright green eyes peeked back out.  
  
"Okay. Basically, he said that things were different nowadays, and that there wasn't much advice he could give me on being a mage--except to not burn my bridges with the Li Clan, since they were the only organized mages he knew about."  
  
Kero's little head bobbed. "He's right, ya know."  
  
"Kero, we've /had/ this discussion. I have no life with the Li Clan. Syaoran's married and spawning."  
  
Flying over to the closet, Kero began pulling Sakura's school uniform off of hangers for her. "I don't think that's what he was talking about. You asked him for help on bein' a mage, I assume. Well, he ain't sayin' you need to go back and try to marry Syaoran or some other Li boy... maybe you oughta ask /them/ for advice."  
  
"Ask the Li Clan for advice." The words in Sakura's mouth tasted about as bad as they sounded to her.  
  
Kero paused. "Yeah. Which one of these do you wanna wear?"  
  
"The shorter one. Kero, I'd sooner strip naked and soar around school with the Fly Card."  
  
"Really?" Kero asked deadpan.  
  
Sakura stopped dead in her tracks, the skirt of her /seifuku/ halfway on, and nearly tripped right over. "No, not /really/! Look, even if the Li Clan was willing, and I was willing, they'd just be figuring out ways to use me. And I don't particularly feel like being used."  
  
Kero shrugged, which was an odd-looking gesture for a stuffed animal with almost no shoulders. "Fair enough. But I don't think Clow'd tell you to do something that wasn't in your best interest. You ain't so naive anymore, and I credit you with the sense to know if you was bein' played."  
  
Sakura nodded thoughtfully. "I suppose, but still."  
  
Kero lifted his nose to the air and made a great dramatic gesture of sniffing.  
  
"That," Sakura observed, "would be my father starting breakfast."  
  
The thought seemed to brighten Kero considerably. "Maybe he'll make /okonomiyaki/ this morning!"  
  
"That'd be nice." Sakura ran a comb through her hair, and pinned it into place. Satisfied with the result, she turned to leave, and stopped in the doorway. "Kero?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Did Clow ever spend much time sitting under pine trees?"  
  
Kero blinked owlishly. "I suppose. The house in Hong Kong was up a little bit on the mountain, and there were a whole stinking lot of trees there. Clow really liked to go outside and read. Why?"  
  
Sakura tapped the doorknob with her fingertip a few times in thought, and then turned. "Nothing. Anyway, I'll see you later."  
  
----  
  
Notes:   
The /seiza/ position is a traditional Japanese sitting position. In essence, you sit with your knees just slightly apart, your back straight, without putting your weight on your heels. It is highly uncomfortable for most people who are not used to it to sit like this for any length of time. 


End file.
